Entertainment

Elisabeth Moss After 'Mad Men' Is Really Busy

by Anna Klassen

While fans of the beloved hit series Mad Men are still mourning the loss of their favorite anitheroes on the AMC megahit, actress Elisabeth Moss has moved on. The 33-year old actress tucked Peggy Olson and her pencil skirts away, and is looking to the future. According to her IMDB page, Elisabeth Moss has six upcoming projects that will be released in the next year. From continuing her role on Top of the Lake to the Tom Hiddleston co-starring High Rise, Moss will soon have us asking: Peggy who? "I ended up doing so many [projects this year] because there was so many great scripts," the newly bleached blonde beauty reveals. "I didn't have time to fit everything in. There were things I wanted to do that I didn't have time to do. The way we can make movies now, and Netflix, there is so much more material that can be made — and that's exciting."

Audiences will soon see Moss in Truth , written and directed by James Vanderbilt and co-starring Oscar-winning Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford. The film centers around the real life story of the Killian documents controversy — or Rathergate, if you will — in the days leading up to the 2004 presidential election. When Mary Mapes (Blanchett), a CBS News head, along with newscaster Dan Rather (Redford), decide to air a 60 Minutes segment accusing President Bush of avoiding being drafted to Vietnam by means of his father's political advantages, the fallout for the journalists is unthinkable. Moss plays Lucy Scott, a team member working on the 60 Minutes story.

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Before snagging the role, Moss knew "not very much at all," about the 2004 scandal before getting her hands on the script, but, "obviously I'm human so I've watched 60 Minutes," she says. While Lucy Scott is alive in the world, Moss says the only source material she needed to craft her character was found in the script, and the 2006 book penned by Mapes the film is based off of. "I'd heard that [Scott] approved of my casting and that she was good with being portrayed, but it was more sort of who she was in the story, what her role was in the investigation, which is a very crucial role," Moss says. "She seems like a very intelligent and reasonable person who was very capable of looking at both sides of something. Mary wouldn't have picked her to be a part of the team if she didn't have that value. I just hopes she likes it. And that she likes my hair."

The director of the film also wrote the script, a type of collaborator Moss jumped to work with. "It's so difficult to write. I don't understand how anyone does it. It seems like a nightmare to me. It seems so hard. It seems awful," she laments. "So the fact that [he] sat down and managed to write a script is incredible. [He] must have loved it, and must have really wanted to tell this story. When you get that passion and drive in the director, I find it really, really helpful. It helps to not have to go ask the writer what he meant. It helps to not have to go 'Well, do you mind if we change this line? What does this beat mean? Can I do this instead of that?' You're asking your writer. They are right there and they know the material more than you ever could."

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Though she has many projects coming down the pipe, Moss chooses roles based on the quality of the script, not the size of the roles. "It doesn't matter if it's film, TV, or theater. For me it doesn't matter if it's a big film or a small film, a half hour or an hour, whether it's West End or Broadway. It's about the script itself, if it's a great story that I want to be a part of," she says.

"I do it cause I love it, but I'm also not doing it in a closet somewhere where nobody can see it," she says. "If people are moved or affected by a story or character, that means everything to me. That's why I take time to stop and talk to fans and take pictures with them, because I always feel like, this is the reason I have a job. This is why I can pay my rent. I'm always incredibly complimented when people come up to me. I thrive on flattery, I really do."

Truth hits theaters October 16.

Images: Sony Pictures Classics; Getty